Banjo-Kazooie

 Not played Banjo-Kazooie in about 15 years but bought it this weekend for £12, I love my N64. Last time I played it I quit after being scared by a metal shark in the water, the eel off of Mario 64s Jolly Roger Bay got me afraid of water levels. I also deleted my mates profile by accident and he was near the end, you can have three profiles on the game you see.

 The story is that a witch named Gruntilda steals Banjos sister Tooty because according to a cauldron she is more beautiful, it's basically Sleeping Beauty (or was it Snow White?) and now Banjo (a bear) and his bird Kazooie have to go save her. The more I played it the more I realised I was pretty much playing Mario 64 but with as a bear, even the noises are alike as my mum said that sounds like Mario!!

 Banjo you find jigsaw pieces, a mole gives you the first one for free and helps you throughout the game by learning you new moves, and then you had to the Witchs base kind of like the castle is in Mario 64  in that it links the levels. You find jigsaw pieces throught the various levels that open up newer levels, akin to the stars in Mario, there are 10 Jigsaw pieces on each level, also jigsaws in Banjo and Paintings in Mario.

 The game play is much the same as Mario aswell as are the level designs, cant remember the camera being as annoying on Mario though as when I reached the level mentioned in the intro with the shark you have to swim under him then free him but I could barely do it as camera was awful. A good thing though is that there's no order in which the levels have to be done, I think if you get enough jigsaws etc. from certain levels you may even be able to ignore a level or two on the way to the end.

 My comparisons to Mario may sound like cheap shots like how TNA is classed as a second rate WWE, but they aren't pot shots as if you want to copy a game then may as well copy a classic like Mario 64, but there are more things to do on the levels than there was on Marios which were 7 Stars only and yet on Banjo there's 10 Jiggys to find, 5 Jinjos (little dragons), 2 Honeycombs which when you find 6 boost up your health meter and there's skulls to find which can you trade in for the ability to transform on certain levels.